His Brother and his Friend
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Shou realises that he doesn’t know his brother’s best friend very well and tries to fix this, helping out Fubuki more than he knew he could. Ryo/Fubuki.


Notes: For the gx_100. Set after season four, when Shou becomes a Pro League duellist.

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Shou had to admit that going to the Pro Leagues had not been like he'd been expecting it to be.

He'd been sort of nervous of it for a long time. Even before he saw what had happened to his brother there Shou just didn't feel that he was cut out for it. All those Pro League duellists were so cool and calm, plus they handled the fame so well.

While Shou… Shou was short. And probably not so able to handle being famous as those other people were. But at least he didn't panic as much as he used to, he reasoned with himself.

But when he'd actually got there he found that a lot of these worries had been for nought. People accepted him. They thought that he was a breath of fresh air among all the other tall, stoic figures of the Pro Leagues. And it even embarrassed him to find that a lot of girls thought he was cute. Some of them even said he had the sort of charm to him Yuugi Motou had when he first started duelling.

Shou had to admit though, that a lot of the fame he'd received probably had something to do with his brother. For all Ryo said that Shou was a stronger duellist than he was now, and that never again would the younger brother have to follow in the footsteps of the elder, it didn't stop other people from seeing that Shou was Hell Kaiser's younger brother.

Ryo reasoned with him, however, that after seeing him duel one match they would love him for being who he was, not for being Ryo's brother. And it seemed that he was right. There was an appeal to seeing some of the cards that Hell Kaiser used turn up in duels again now that their original owner had retired, but after a short time people were coming to Shou's matches for Shou, not anyone else.

Perhaps the Pro Leagues weren't so bad after all, especially since he had a good manager to back him up. Though it was in Shou's nature to worry about his manager too. He'd noticed that Ryo devoted all his time to ensuring that Shou got the best matches, at the best places and was only duelling as much as he could handle. A few times Shou had told him he should take a break, but Ryo just assured him that if anyone wanted to talk to Ryo than they could talk to him at work.

It did seem to turn out that way too, for more than a few times Shou had noticed Fubuki turn up to visit Ryo. The boy seemed to know when Ryo would have enough of a free moment in his schedule to be able to spend some time at him even at work.

At first Shou thought it was odd that Fubuki was turning up to see Ryo instead of his sister Asuka, whom Shou remembered was close to Ryo when he was at the academia. But then he remembered that others had said Fubuki was Ryo's best friend. He'd never seen it first hand but perhaps now he would do.

He realised, as he saw the brown haired boy leave Ryo's office, that he really didn't know Fubuki that well. They'd spoken a few times and they both belonged to Juudai's group of friends, but that was about their only connection.

It felt wrong not knowing his brother's close friend. After all, Ryo did know Shou's best friend Juudai quite well.

He made a point to approach Fubuki, but words seemed to fail him and he just ended up waving awkwardly.

"Hey!" Fubuki called, cheerfully waving back, it was lucky the boy could cut through embarrassment like a knife, "No need to worry, I won't be keeping your brother from seeing your next match."

"There's no need to be concerned about that, it's two hours before I'm duelling," confirmed Shou, trying to smile enough to match Fubuki's wide grin.

"Not if you ask Ryo," laughed Fubuki, "He seems to think it takes that long to prepare."

"Big brother always does worry to much," agreed Shou.

"But that's what's so good about him," answered Fubuki, "From your perspective you wouldn't want a casual manager who didn't care about your duels. And even though I hate to admit it Ryo's stern nature has put me on the right track more than a few times."

"I think you help Ryo too," said Shou, because it seemed like the right thing to say.

Fubuki look away for a moment, commenting, "Not as much as I should have done perhaps… But there's no better time than the present to change that." The last part he sounded much happier to say, "I'm glad you came to talk to me actually. Because I was thinking that we're going to see a lot more of each other soon, so it's sort of a shame that we don't know each other well."

"There's no better time than now to change that too," Shou said, smiling.

"You catch on fast, I like that," Fubuki laughed once more, "You'll be a great addition to have at movies nights."

"Movie nights?"

Somehow the image of Ryo watching movies did not compute in Shou's mind.

"Yeah, as long as you like budget movies," carried on Fubuki obliviously, "Though not everything's going to be low budget…"

"Oh?" Shou didn't think he was supposed to have heard that last point but he had done.

"It's nothing, it's…" Fubuki paused to look at Shou carefully, "Then again, people are going to find out soon anyway, and you're his brother so you should know him better than anyone."

"Is it something I could help out with?" asked Shou, he'd been told from Ryo before that Fubuki had a tendency to not tell the whole truth and talk in riddles, so he was cautious.

"I think you could," smiled Fubuki, going to look in his pocket for something. He brought out a small box, and even before he opened that box it wouldn't have taken a genius to guess what was inside, "Do you think your brother will like this? I know it's silver but he seems to like that more than gold. Then again maybe he doesn't like ime/i that much."

Shou didn't even have to look at the ring much to answer that, "Fubuki I know he'll accept you. Maybe we don't know each other well yet, but I know for sure what he thinks of you and I know that if you want him to marry you that'll make him happier than he has been for years."

"I think you being in the Pro Leagues makes him happier than he has been in years," said Fubuki, but it was clear that what Shou said had taken a load off his mind.

"Than why don't we both make him the happiest he can be," confirmed Shou, certain that through his brother he would form a new friendship with Fubuki.


End file.
